Japan's Strangest Unsolved Mystery

1989: a mysterious SOS sign beckons from the Japanese wilderness. The mystery of who built it, however, remains unsolved to this day.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Searching for the Two
3:05 - Oddly Straightforward?
8:39 - Something is Wrong
10:18 - Intermission
11:52 - A Mystery of Extraordinary Circumstance
15:33 - The Discovery in the Woods
21:05 - The Questions that Remain
23:40 - Decoding the SOS Sign Incident
29:45 - Japan's Strangest Unsolved Mystery

MORE ON THE SOS SIGN INCIDENT:

The following content is for educational, documentary, and artistic purposes only.

[Nexpo]

Learned Unreal Engine for this video and for some topics I want to cover in the future. First time using the engine but I hope you guys like it🖤

[emit]

Does anyone else find it bittersweet yet heartwarming that at the end of the day, the SOS sign _did_ end up saving someone? The rescuers admitted they wouldn't have found the two hikers that were saved without the sign. Whether it was built by Kenji, or someone else who was lost, someone on the brink of death used the last of their strength to construct a massive SOS that ended up miraculously saving two strangers' lives years later.

[Vanishing_Age]

Two notes about the recording.
1. "sasa" is bamboo. presumably he's stuck in an area of thick bamboo?
2. The way Japanese works, they don't have the heavy use of pronouns that we do in English and is heavily context based. Grammatically there is no difference between "Help me" and "Help us"

[AiriMagePRISM]

Seeing a Nexpo upload when my YouTube recommended has been the absolute _worst_ recently has breathed new life into me.

[dm]

The central problem with your theory is the same problem the initial rescuers of the two Tokyo hikers had. They assumed those two had made the sign. You assume Kenji was at least involved in making the sign. It's very possible, even likely, that the sign was made by OTHERs either before or after he disappeared, and those people were either never found or eventually made their way off the mountain and didn't read the news or just never came forward when their sign made headlines. If there are already two known incidents within a few years of people needing to be rescued in that exact area, and the mountain is known for having confusing trails, it's not unreasonable to propose that others have also gotten lost in that area. As far as I know from my own research into this case (I can read Japanese, though deciphering kanji on blurry 1980s scans can be tough!), there was never any analysis done on the wood itself to determine roughly when it was cut beyond noting it was done at least a couple of years before the Tokyo hikers were found.

It's also worth noting that the parents COULD NOT CONFIRM it was him on the recording; they didn't say it wasn't him. Tis can be explained by the fact that it was a cassette tape recording, he was yelling in extreme duress, and he was speaking in a very unconventional manner that is not normally done. People misidentify recordings, both audio and visual, of loved ones all the time. It's hardly proof that someone else recorded the message.

That said, I suspect the SOS sign is unrelated to Kenji. I also think there's a reasonable possibility that it was not made by people in distress at all, but was perhaps some sort of survival project done by a group of experienced hikers at some point. It's very hard to believe that even two people made it, whoever did it had to have an ax and likely ropes and other materials to move everything, and most people in genuine danger would probably rather exert their energy on something else such as finding food/water/shelter. If this was the case, it's unlikely the creators would have come forward if they even heard about it at all (this did make national news, but not everyone reads the paper) because it would be considered an embarrassment.

[Beeg_Boy]

I facepalmed so hard at “fake safe rock” you’d really think they’d have a better navigation marker lmao

[A-lik]

Garfield: "Oh boy, I hope this Nexpo video isn't TOO scary!"

Nexpo: "...Monday."

[NemessXx]

Maybe Kenji build the sign BEFORE getting injured, on the tape he says "I'm at the location where I first met the helicopter". Maybe he built the sign, saw a helicopter and ran chasing after it screaming for help. While chasing after it he slips and falls, breaking several bones. Maybe he thought the helicopter saw him and would be back, his voice so ragged from screaming after the copter and in so much pain he could barely yell, he used his last bit of energy to make the recording, his voice hoarse and the recording quality so poor he would sound nothing like himself, and find his way back to the S.O.S. sign.
As for the sign itself, the S.O.S. sign could have been made from downed trees and branches that he dragged into the clearing over the course of several days.

[SamPavo]

I love the fact that Nexpo used PlayStation 2 Menu sound effects in the video, it really sets in the atmosphere of this whole situation.

[roosh]

No mention or explanation for why the hotel manager literally said nothing about this missing man…ever? Not only did he not immediately contact police or file a missing persons report at any time, he just continued living like the dude never existed?

[lifevest]

I lost my bro in an avalanche accident in the Inyo National Forest so hiking/mountaineering stories like this always hit different. Mountains are strange. Elevation/low oxygen does weird things to people. You could hike for hours and see only one other person. Whenever you hear a hiker say “blonde hair? Green necklace? Oh yeah, I saw him three days ago when coming down the pass.” Lines like those always give me chills. Brilliant stuff Nexpo!

[valhallasrevenge]

you left out the part where it was taken photos of the area from the air. "In regards to the SOS sign, the Japan Forestry Agency and the Japan Geographical Authority took a look at previous topographic map data used to find aerial photographs, in which it was confirmed that the SOS sign was in the images taken on 20 September 1987."

meaning that the sign was there for almost two years before the story takes place..

edit : i know Kenji went missing in 84. i pointed out the first known date of the SOS sign because it's possible he or someone else could have made it? just knowing that the sign was there almost two years before they found it and a body that clearly couldn't have made it raises a lot of questions.

[rbmay]

no matter what really happened, the thought of someone dying so slowly right next to an SOS sign is harrowing.

[Hanakin-Sidewalker]

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, you never, EVER underestimate what a person running on pure adrenaline can do.

[BobtheRedead]

There's no distinction between "save me" and "save us" in the Japanese used here. "Tasukete kure" is just the command form of the verb meaning to rescue (tasukeru) and a politeness verb indicating a request for a favor (kureru, meaning that someone would be giving you aid.)

Japanese often omits nouns if it's clear what you are talking about. E.g., you could just say "tired" instead of "I am tired." Similarly, "tasukete kure" is asking someone to do a rescue of an implied "me/us." In this case, "kureru" is one of 2 "give" verbs, and is the one used when the speaker will be the recipient of the preceding action. It could be a singular "me" or a plural "us;" nothing in the language used indicates either way.

[Bruno_Bhydt]

These new animations add such a fitting aesthetic to the video and this channel, props for the effort !

[DomikBezdar]

The idea of making the video VHS horror game style is absolutely insane, and the graphics line up perfectly with the story, u r the goat bro

[Silly]

Two different people at the same spot just not at the same time. Either a person or a group get lost and build the SOS sign, then some time later Kenji gets lost and wind up at the SOS sign. This would explain why he yells SOS being influenced by seeing the sign.

[VuldEdone]

Okay, let's try and clean the info because the sources are confusing as hell. I can't even confirm the "two cameras" thing.
- In 1982 there was no SOS sign. In 1987 there was. Confirmed by aerial photography from forestry services.
- It was made of clean-cut birch trees, 16-19 of them or so.
- Sources differ on whether there are birch trees in the area...
- Kenji Iwamura went missing in 1984. He had a walkman and four cassette tapes (and maybe a camera, unconfirmed).
- His family reported his disappearance and a search was organized, days to a week after he was gone.
- This search included a 30mn helicopter flight -- helicopters were expensive and budgets were low at the time.
- In 1989, the SOS sign is properly found.
- The police finds remains (possibly scattered) on site, first misidentified, corresponding to a male, same age range as Iwamura.
- The two fractures were apparently near the left shoulder and the right thigh.
- They also find belongings including toiletry (plus a good luck charm from his region), the walkman and cassette tapes and backpack.
- I can't confirm two cameras, can't confirm a small tripod, can't confirm a "human skull", can't confirm a notebook, can't even tell if there were 1 or 2 bags.
- The walkman apparently had a weak loudspeaker, it couldn't be heard beyond a few meters.
- The recorded SOS message had no background noise -- remarkable given just the wind can ruin it.
- Sources differ on the message content: whether he "met" or "saw" a helicopter and if he really said he was on top of the cliff
- Sources concur on the bamboo bushes making it really hard to go back up.
- Sources differ on whether you can escape the site just by following the river or such.
- The parents identified Iwamura's belongings and only could not confirm the voice.
I think that's pretty much all of it. Sources are all third-hand, original second-hand articles are from 1989 and in Japanese (and possibly ripe with yellow journalism). I have no idea what the police actually said, no idea what exactly was found on site and contradictory information on the recording and the site's accessibility. The only first-hand info' is the recording, the pic' of the sign and footage of objects found where again, I can't even see a single cameras.

I'll stand by my theory but this is hearsay level of reliability.

[freddiemossberg]

Why not put a HUGE sign by the fake safe rock that says “FAKE SAFE ROCK” “NOT TO BE USED AS LANDMARK” and a similar sign be the ACTUAL safe rock saying “SAFE ROCK” “USE AS LANDMARK”. Wouldn’t that make sense?